抄録
Ion beam at energy lower than tens of keV has been found to have significant biological effects on living materials. The finding has led to applications of ion-beam induced mutation and gene transfer. From the theoretical point of view, the low-energy ion beam effects on biology are difficult to understand with the knowledge of high-energy ion irradiation of biological matter since the ion range is so short that the ions can hardly directly interact with the key biological molecules for the changes. This paper introduces interesting aspects of low-energy ion beam biology, including basis of ion beam biotechnology and recent developments achieved in Chiang Mai University in relevant applications such as mutation and gene transfer and investigation on mechanisms involved in the low-energy ion interaction with biological matter such as eV-keV ion beam bombardments of naked DNA and the cell envelopes.
